A sealing device for providing a seal between a steering gear casing and a front wall sheet of a motor vehicle body around a steering shaft feed through lumen extending both through the a steering gear casing and the front wall sheet, the device comprising a base body to be mounted to a steering gear casing and a foamed sealing body extending away from the base body is known from German Patent Application DE 10 2005 047 955 B3. Here, the ring-shaped foamed sealing body is glued to the base body made of hard plastic. I.e., the sealing body is at first produced separately from the base body. This is generally done in that the sealing body is punched out of cut plates of foamed material which has been previously foamed in a large volume. It is the function of the foamed sealing body to cover static and dynamic tolerances between the steering gear casing and the front wall sheet of a motor vehicle body to inhibit the transfer of noise, moisture or gases, which have an undesired temperature or may be polluted, from the engine compartment into the interior of the motor vehicle. Beside the static tolerances due to production inaccuracies and the dynamic tolerances in the operation of the motor vehicle due to relative movements of the steering gear casing and the front wall sheet with regard to each other, special requirements are placed on a sealing device which is the subject-matter of the present invention during mating the underbody and the body of the motor vehicle, wherein the steering gear casing with the sealing device belongs to the underbody. For example, it is intended that the sealing body of the sealing device, after pre-assembly with the steering gear casing, automatically rests against the front wall sheet, wherein a pre-stress is built-up to achieve the desired sealing between the steering gear casing and the front wall sheet. As the front wall sheet is inclined at an acute angle to the direction of relative movement of the underbody and the body of the motor vehicle with regard to each other, the foamed sealing body is subject to shearing stress during mating the body with the underbody. However, it must not be deformed due to the shearing stress to such an extent that it protrudes into the area of a lumen of the steering shaft feed through which has to be kept free for the steering shaft. To avoid this, it is generally known have a hole in the sealing body which provides the lumen for feeding the steering shaft through as an elongated hole. Such an elongated hole, however, may cause problems in sealingly connecting the sealing body to an inner tube of the base body enclosing the steering shaft, for example. Gluing the sealing body to the base body is a laborious and expensive step in the manufacture of the known sealing device anyway. A sealing jacket made of elastomeric material and covering the sealing body, which is additionally provided according to DE 10 2005 047 955 B3, is directly injection-molded of elastomeric EPDM material to the base body made of plastic.
There is a need for a sealing device providing a seal between a steering gear casing and a front wall sheet of a body of a motor vehicle which may be produced at low cost but which nevertheless has enhanced properties as compared to known sealing devices.